Huskies Hoops Recruit Excited About International Experience

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If you think Geno Auriemma's freshman class is ridiculously talented, just wait a year.

In 2015, the group includes the nation's best player -- Katie Lou Samuelson -- as well as two others in the top 10 players: Napheesa Collier and De’Janae Boykin. There's also Kia Nurse, a member of the Canadian national team, and Georgetown transfer (and 2013-14 Big East freshman of the year) Natalie Butler.

But there's a lot of basketball to be played between then and now, and for Collier, that means joining Samuelson and Boykin at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games later in August, almost a month after Samuelson and Boykin helped lead the U.S. FIBA-U17 squad to the gold medal at the world championships in the Czech Republic.

“I got to catch some of (the U-17 tournament) on the USA Basketball website and I kept getting updates,” Collier told snyucon.com's Carl Adamec on Thursday. “Katie Lou was raining threes and De’Janae was doing all the little things that she always does.

“I was just so proud of them and the whole USA team. They played great and now I’m hoping that we can do the same,” she told snyuconn.com.

But before the Youth Olympic Games, Collier will take part in the FIBA U-18 Americas tournament, which starts Wednesday in Colorado Springs, Colorado. After the gold medal game on Aug. 10, Collier will remain in Colorado Springs at the U.S. Olympic Training Facility and join Samuelson and Boykin as they prepare for the Youth Olympic Games, which take place in Nanjing, China from Aug. 16-28.

“We spend two days together here before we go to China and I’m so excited,” Collier told sny.com “It’s so cool to think that the three of us will all get to play together before we get to UConn.”